Call of Duty: Black Ops Walkthrough & Strategy Guide

Escape the Cuban Police — and did you check out that chick at the bar?

You (as Alex Mason - no relation to the Red Faction Martian guy) will have a Commando (not invented yet) with a Reflex Sight and Grenade Launcher (7 grenades) and the ASP handgun (from the bar). On Veteran difficulty, you may want to use the grenade launcher on the cop cars -- 1 per car (five cars) and you will deal with most of the cops easily.

The grenade launcher is a great tool for eradicating law enforcement. The police cruiser explodes when the explosive impacts, and kills the officers within. Head for your escape vehicle and leave to end this portion of the tutorial.

Use the rifle's scope and pick apart the enemies as you movel slowly down the street. Right before you reach the plaza, you may want to hang back and lob a grenade or two at the police blockade before heading for the escape vehicle where Carlos is waiting. Follow the on-screen button prompts to escape in the car (it's buttons only).

Infiltrate Castro's Villa

Hook-up behind Woods and zip down the rope. The weapons you had on the street will be what you have now, including that ASP handgun. You won't need the handgun except as a last-ditch defence weapon, and you will likely replace it with the RPG-7 towards the end of the stage. Head into the shack and take down the sentry with melee and shadow Bowman and Woods.

In the villa's armory (the building where Mason says, "Today's the day we succeed.") look for an RPG-7 leaning against a crate. The intel machine is on top of that crate.

Wait for the enemy convoy to pass and cross the road. Start the shooting now, and silence the enemies at the motor-pool. Woods and Bowman will breach into the next building (the villa's armory) before proceeding to the villa itself.

Engage local defences and neutralize the HVT

Enter the villa and Bowman will depart, leaving you alone with Woods. Sweep through the left side of the wing (through the kitchen) and toss a grenade into the hall to thin out the crowd. When you make the turn in the hallway, Bowman will report B-26 Marauders will be bombing the palace, shaking the camera, and making things hard to aim at.

Inside the villa, the enemies swarm thick. Go down the left corridor and eradicate the opposition. When you breach the first room, take down the enemies from right to left; Woods' A.I. prioritizes from left to right.

Regrouping with Woods at the next door (to breach) will put you at the halfway point of the level.

Breach through the first door, and zap the three Cuban soldiers in the room. Reload your weapons -- you might want to swap the handgun for something with more zoom (but that's not necessary) and stack up with Woods at the door. When you breach again, you will encounter Fidel Castro (minus his cap). Take him out.

Bonus Task » Death to Dictators

Sic Temper Tyrannis. After Mason and Woods breach into Fidel's boudoir, take aim and fire a shot at Castro's noggin. You should have enough time to take aim thanks to the slow-motion sequence. Send that one all-important message to El Presidente and get some bonus points (or a trophy).

Mason will auto equip the handgun for the attempt on Castro's life; if you have very little ammunition, the "dramatic weapon" for this scene will have plenty of ammo. You only need one slug to end tyranny.

Regroup at the front of the villa

Since you just killed the beloved leader of an entire country, it would be very prudent to GTF out of Dodge, like right the f— now! Unfortunately, there are several waves of soldiers you need to chew through to reach the front of the mansion.

Use the Commando's scope to take down enemies from afar and be wary of walking too far forward too quickly. You may out-pace the events needed to trigger another scenario, and wind up being stuck. Proceed ahead if there are few (or no) enemies around.

As you escape towards the front of the villa, you will see Bowman (the black guy) come out of a spare bedroom firing repeatedly into the chest of an enemy. Head into that spare bedroom and check out the nightstand for this tape player.

Bowman and Woods will head downstairs in the villa's foyer. Head down with them (watch that enemy to the right of the stairs) and get some unfortunate chatter.

Get to the airfield and escape Cuba

Wait at the front of the villa. Carlos and his band of merry men will scale the wall and clear out most of the enemies in the yard (you may want to snipe the ones in the towers, or they may kill you). This isn't the

The three threats are from the two towers and the shooter at the Technical's gun. Down them and then pick up the damn RPG-7. You will need it to blast the BTR so you can safely escape.

It's not over yet. Notice there's a conspicuously placed RPG-7 near the front entrance. Take it and use it to blast the enemy BTR before you flee through the breach in the wall, or it will cut you down. Hopefully, none of your allies will be nearby, or the explosion will kill them instantly.

The RPG-7 is behind the sandbag on your left when you exit the villa's front door. The BTR will not fire until it stops, so you have a few second to take aim and blast the mo'fugger'chugger into scrap metal.

Escape across the sugar cane field and fast-rope down the slope. From the bottom of the slope, slip into the hangar and make your way across the airstrip towards the cargo plane.

Inside the first hangar you encounter past the fast-rope, locate some boarding stairs -- these are the stairs used to board small planes back before the passage of the 19th Amendment. The tape player is resting on top of the boarding stairs.

Don't worry about weapons now -- Mason will get a fully loaded M-60 "Pig" and limitless ammo for the next gun-ride. Down the enemies and pay attention to the AA guns (Russian ZPUs) on the runway's side. Take down both before they destroy the plane and ward off any further enemy attacks.

Flee through the tarmac and get on board. Once you are, you will have infinite M-60 ammunition for the escape. Aim true and don't die.

When Mason hops off to man the final gun, take out the vehicles at the end of the runway. Mission accomplished.